With Gov. John Kasich getting all sorts of national attention as a presidential candidate, does that earn him extra credibility with the Ohio legislature? Apparently not. After he called on legislators during his State of the State address last week to revamp the way Ohio's congressional districts are drawn, his fellow Republicans who lead the General Assembly panned the proposal.

Darrel Rowland, The Columbus Dispatch

With Gov. John Kasich getting all sorts of national attention as a presidential candidate, does that earn him extra credibility with the Ohio legislature?

Apparently not.

After he called on legislators during his State of the State address last week to revamp the way Ohio's congressional districts are drawn, his fellow Republicans who lead the General Assembly panned the proposal.

Senate President Keith Faber - who represented the Kasich campaign this weekend in Michigan as GOP convention delegates were picked - said the legislature has higher priorities.

House Speaker Cliff Rosenberger gave no indication of budging from his earlier stance that the current setup should stand until at least 2030 to give legislators a chance to assess the results of a plan approved last year changing the way legislative districts are drawn.

Even on modest Kasich proposals, such as altering state income-tax withholding tables that would get money to Ohioans faster but not provide an overall tax cut, the Republican leaders' biggest commitment was that they would consider his ideas.

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Speaking of Kasich surrogates working the intense behind-the-scenes battle over who gets picked as delegates for the national convention, Merle Madrid says nevermind what Texas Sen. Ted Cruz is saying about controlling 18 of the 25 delegates chosen to represent North Dakota.

Madrid, whose day job is serving as Kasich's director of legislative affairs, said he had dinner with several of those people the night before the selection, and they actually are committed Kasich backers.

Speaking of the State of the State in Marietta, for the fifth year, the community hosting Kasich's speech got a huge new stage backdrop featuring the Ohio flag as a gift.

The flags are sewn by prisoners at the Ohio Reformatory for Women in Marysville. The cost of around $600 is picked up by Kasich's gubernatorial staff.

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The Kasich team has long been frustrated about the lack of news media attention it receives compared with coverage of diatribes by Trump and Cruz, who of course also have dominated the GOP campaign.

Last weekend, Kasich and Cruz were the featured speakers at a Milwaukee County Republican dinner ahead of the Wisconsin primary. Trump didn't come but sent former Alaska Gov. Sarah Palin as a surrogate.

The next day, the speech of non-candidate Palin led the state capital newspaper's front-page story, followed by Cruz's.

Kasich? He got two paragraphs - presciently noting that because he hasn't engaged in name-calling or mudslinging, he hasn't gotten much coverage.